JUNE 2013 CAST
HASKETT  POINT

HASKETT POINT
TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH
12,000+ CAL. YEARS BEFORE PRESENT
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2013 PETER A. BOSTROM

ORIGINAL IS PROPERTY OF U.S. AIR FORCE (HILL)
CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-108
HASKETT POINT
 TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH
12,000+ CAL. YEARS BEFORE PRESENT

    This is the largest Haskett point ever documented archaeologically. It was discovered during an archaeological survey in the Great Salt Lake Desert in western Utah. It represents one of the earliest forms of western stemmed points and appears to date sometime prior to about 12,000 calibrated years before present based on its context. These types of spear points are now believed to have been used to hunt large mammals during the late Pleistocene. Evidence of this comes from another Haskett point found nearby, which reacted positively to elephant antisera (presumably mammoth or mastodon) when tested for protein residue.  Both of these points were found within a geological formation known as The Old River Bed which is an abandoned river delta that flowed onto the floor of the Great Salt Lake Desert and, for some time, into ancient Lake Bonneville. This point was found in two pieces within a few feet of each other. The base was cleanly broken with a bend-break type of fracture 1 7/16 inches (3.6 cm) from the base. It's made of black basalt and it measures 8 13/16 inches (22.4 cm) long.

MAY 2013 CAST
ARCHAIC SIDE-NOTCHED  POINT

SIDE-NOTCHED POINT
ARCHAIC
2000 B.C. TO 1 B.C.
WALLACE RUIN SITE
MONTEZUMA CO., COLORADO
COPYRIGHT APRIL 30, 2013 PETER A. BOSTROM

ILLUSTRATION OF CAST
CAST #AN-4
 SIDE-NOTCHED POINT
ARCHAIC
WALLACE RUIN SITE
MONTEZUMA CO., COLORADO

   The Wallace Ruin site is a multi-storied Ancestral Pueblo near Cortez, Colorado. The site produced projectile points from both Early and Middle Archaic periods and later period Basketmaker II and III and points from all three Pueblo periods. This side-notched point was found during excavation at Wallace Ruin by Bruce Bradley. He identifies this point "as one of about eight or nine point types that represent the prehistoric development on the Colorado Plateau of southeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southeastern Colorado. An Archaic sequence is seen that has been termed the Oshara Tradition. This was a high desert plateau hunting/gathering tradition that shows some relationship to the lower Desert Archaic and the southern Great Basin Archaic.
    This side-notched point is believed to date sometime between 2000 B.C. to 1 B.C. It's made of Basalt and measures 1 9/16 inches (3.9 cm) long.

MARCH 2013 CAST
FOLSOM POINT

FOLSOM POINT
READY-LINCOLN HILLS SITE
JERSEY COUNTY, ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 28, 2013 PETER A. BOSTROM

    This site was originally known as the Ready site (pronounced Reedy) and later as the Lincoln Hills site. The Ready-Lincoln Hills site is the largest Early Paleo-Indian camp and stone tool manufacturing site in an area near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. The site is on a cultivated field that measures about 2.7 acres (1.1 ha). The main lithic source was high quality Burlington chert that was available from local outcrops along valley walls and stream beds. The Ready-Lincoln Hills site produced a large collection of Clovis manufacturing debris in the form of broken and discarded fluted bifaces, point preforms and other miscellaneous unifacial tools. The site collection contained 224 fluted bifaces that were determined to be manufacturing rejects.

FEBRUARY 2013 CAST
EDEN POINT

EDEN POINT
HORNER SITE
PARKER COUNTY, WYOMING
COPYRIGHT JANUARY 31, 2013 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-106
EDEN POINT
HORNER SITE
PARK COUNTY, WYOMING

    Two basic typological point types are represented in the Horner II site excavation. All but one example are type I style points. This is the single type II point that was found during the excavation of the Horner site and it's been identified as an Eden style. It falls typologically and technologically between the Alberta and Scottsbluff / Eden points but is considered to be an Eden style. The flaking is the reason for its type II designation and the decision to call it an Eden point. Flakes were removed wide enough so they do not overlap and they were removed uniformly. It's described as being generally narrower than type one points and the blade edges are less convex. The point is widest at the shoulders and the thickest area is near the point (distal end). The cross-section of the blade is lenticular and the cross-section of the stem is flat.
   This point represents one of 21 projectile points that were found during the University of Wyoming excavations and only one of five complete un-reworked points. This point is made of translucent Morrison Formation chert and measures slightly over 3 3/8 inches (8.6 cm) long.
   This projectile point was discovered sometime during the 1977-78, 1980, 1983 & 1984 excavations of the Horner II site by the University of Wyoming. Earlier excavations of the Horner site (Horner I) was carried out by Princeton University in 1949 & 1950 and by the Smithsonian Institution in 1952.

JANUARY 2013 CAST
GOSHEN POINT

GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA
COPYRIGHT DECEMBER 30, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-105
GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA

   This Goshen point is described by Frison and Bradley as a point that, "is different in shape from the rest of the points (that were found on the Mill iron site). It is nearly triangular with slightly convex sides and has the slightest suggestion of a basal indentation. We believe that it is very likely that this point resulted from the all-over reworking of a piece of a broken point." Originally, this point may have been larger and a new base was applied after it was broken so it could be used again. This point is made of purple colored Porcellanite measures 1 13/16 inches (4.7 cm) long.
     Thirty-one projectile points were found on the Mill Iron site. Eleven were found in the camp area, twelve in the bone bed meat processing area and seven points were found on the surface. These points exhibit a fairly wide range of style and flaking technique. Some of the bases are almost straight, while others vary from slightly to fairly deeply concave. Also, some of the basal edges are concave but are straight at the base of the concavity, similar to some Folsom points. The sides are straight to slightly convex and one example appears to be slightly fish-tailed.

   The Mill iron site is located in Carter County, Montana in the southeastern part of the state. It's now believed that it represents the Goshen Cultural Complex as it was described at the Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming. There are now five accelerator dates on the site that average over 11,000 years before present. It remains to be proven if Goshen is a Clovis variant or if it should be placed somewhere between Clovis and Folsom.
   The Mill Iron site contains a single component and is buried under 1.5 to 1.8 meters of sterile deposits. One area is a camp site meat processing area and a short distance away is a bison bone bed that appears to be a deliberate piling of articulated and disarticulated bones and is not an actual kill area. Goshen projectile points demonstrate a wide range of variation, much of which results from reworking of broken specimens. (Frison, George C., 1991 pp 133-150)

DECEMBER 2012 CAST
CLOVIS POINT

CLOVIS POINT
UTAH
COPYRIGHT NOVEMBER 30, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-104
CLOVIS POINT
UTAH

   This Clovis point was found several years ago in Utah by Greg Nunn. It's a good example of a western style Clovis point or knife. Some of the flaking is oblique and the base is shallow. One side has a large flute flake that is 1 3/8 inches (3.5 cm) long. There are also two small spots of encrusted red ochre on one side that indicates this point may have been in a cache. This Clovis point is made of semi-translucent gray/brown chalcedony and measures 5 3/16 inches (13.2 cm) long and 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) wide.

NOVEMBER 2012 CAST
SCOTTSBLUFF POINT

SCOTTSBLUFF POINT
HORNER SITE
PARKER COUNTY, WYOMING
COPYRIGHT OCTOBER 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST  ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-103

    The Horner site was discovered by Jimmy Allen on July 2, 1939 while he “walked down the (Shoshone) River to Sage Creek, hunting arrowheads.” The site was later recognized as the representative type site of the Cody Cultural Complex. The site was named after Pear Horner, the owner of the land. The Horner site is located in northwestern Wyoming in Park County 4 miles northeast of the town of Cody. The site is also situated on a 150 foot terrace near the confluence of Sage Creek and the Shoshone River.

SEPTEMBER 2012 CAST
BONE NEEDLE

BONE NEEDLE
BUHL BURIAL SITE
TWIN FALLS COUNTY, IDAHO
EST. 10,500 TO 11,000 YEARS BEFORE PRESENT
COPYRIGHT AUGUST 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-102
BONE NEEDLE
BUHL BURIAL SITE
TWIN FALLS COUNTY, IDAHO

     This bone needle was found in 1989 during the excavation of the "Buhl Woman" burial. It was restored before it was cast. Approximately 9/16 inch (1.4 cm) of the tip of the point is restored. The original length of the broken needle measured 1 5/16 inches (3.3 cm) long. This needle also measures 2 mm in diameter and the eye measures .8 mm in diameter. Microscopic examination of the eye of the needle suggests that it was formed by gouging, rather than drilling, with a hand-held perforator.
    The Buhl site is located in Twin Falls County, Idaho about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) north of the town of Buhl. The initial discovery was made by gravel quarry workers who pulled a human femur out of the screen of a rock crusher. The actual burial site was quickly located after the initial discovery.  Bone samples taken from the burial produced a radio carbon date of 10,675 + 95 years before present. Study of the teeth and bones suggest that the "Buhl Woman" was between 17 and 21 years old when she died. No genetic testing was done but the skull's morphology was similar to both American Indian and East Asian populations.
 

    This picture shows three casts of bone artifacts that were found with the Buhl burial. The black line on the bone needle indicates where it was originally broken.  The other two bone pieces have been described as fragments belonging to possibly a single awl or pin. The broken segment on the left has 11 engraved lines cut along the edges.
     All of the Buhl site human remains were handed over to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, who claimed them, in December of 1992 for reburial. Tribal elders commented that "recent deaths on the reservation were caused by the stirring of the Buhl woman's spirit."

AUGUST 2012 CAST
AZTEC RITUAL KNIFE

AZTEC RITUAL KNIFE
AZTEC CULTURE
PRE-SPANISH MEXICO
COPYRIGHT JULY 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED

CAST #PRE-4

AZTEC RITUAL KNIFE
AZTEC CULTURE
PRE-SPANISH MEXICO

   This is a cast of a typical example of an Aztec biface. Aztec bifaces are reported to have been used in blood sacrifices and buried in ritual offerings as "personified" forms of different deities. Bifaces like this have been found in excavations of ceremonial caches in the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan that is now located under the modern day city of Mexico City. These unique ritual tools are also referred to as Aztec knives. This biface measures 6 13/16 inches (17.3 cm) long. This biface measures 6 13/16 inches (17.3 cm) long. It's made of a semi-translucent brownish/red colored tabular chert that was commonly used by Aztec flint-smiths.
   Recent excavations in the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan at Templo Mayor in Mexico City, is providing new information about these types of Aztec ritual knives. The discovery of a ceremonial deposit contained within a stone box that is designated as offering 125 is particularly important. The cache dates to sometime between 1486 and 1502. The stone box is located at the foot of the staircase leading to the Templo Mayor and it represents an entrance to the underworld. The cache contained 3,800 artifacts including 27 bifaces that were decorated as gods, priests and warriors.  The artifacts were placed in the box in layers. The lower level contained the body of a dog that was surrounded by 19 decorated knives and in the upper level two golden eagles were buried with  eight decorated knives. Some of the knives located at the top of the cache were attached to copal bases and stood upright. These knives bore eyes and teeth and carried miniature weapons made of wood, flint and shell.   Other knives lower down in the cache had irregular copal bases or none at all. Copal was an aromatic tree resin that was burned as incense.
   Some of the bifaces in offering 125 were identified as representing at least three Aztec gods in the form of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, Xochipille and Techalotl. The most important god is Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl who descended to the underworld to retrieve the bones from which humanity was created and introduced maize and auto-sacrifice (self-sacrifice such as blood-letting). This knife was adorned with a "wind jewel" in the form of a truncated shell worn on the chest, a curved scepter, a marine shell necklace, earrings in the shape of speech marks, a headdress representing star eyes, the image of a bone needle made of gold leaf symbolizing auto-sacrifice, monkey fur, and a duck-shaped pendant.
   Xochipille represented the god of music, games flowers and dance. This knife was identified as Xochipille from a drop-shaped pendant made of mother-of-pearl. The other god, Techalotl, is associated with the ritual drink pulque (alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant.)
   Other knives in the cache were believed to represent gods but there was not enough evidence to link them to any of the deities. But there were other knives in the stone box that were "dressed" with weapons that identified them to warriors. These objects were represented as a wooden pectoral in the form of a bow, a dart thrower (atlatl) and projectile points.
   A third group of knives were identified as a priestly category. Three of the knives were "personified" with gourd containers that were items used by priests to hold tobacco used in ceremonies. Some of the knives are reported to have been devoid of any decoration.

JULY 2012 CAST
MICRO-DRILL

MICRO-DRILL
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED

CAST M-17
MICRO-DRILL
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS

   This micro-drill was discovered on the Cahokia Mounds site within an area of about 3.7 acres on the Kunnemann tract where many thousands have been found. These small drills were once hafted onto reed shafts and used to drill holes in shell and other soft organic materials. Most of these types of drills were probably used to make beads. The Cahokia people were manufacturing very large numbers of shell beads. At least 60,000 drilled shell beads were found in Mound 72 at Cahokia. These were divided into seven different main types or styles and within those there were other subtypes based on size and form. Bead making experiments have shown that it takes about ten minutes to drill one bead. At this rate it would have taken 1,250 eight hour days of steady work to complete the drilling part of the process to produce the 60,000 beads that were found in Mound 72. This micro-drill is made of white Burlington chert and it measures 1 1/16 inches (2.6 cm) long.

JUNE 2012 CAST
CLOVIS BIFACE

CLOVIS BIFACE
FENN CACHE
BORDER AREA OF UTAH, IDAHO OR WYOMING
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-101

CLOVIS BIFACE
FENN CACHE
BORDER AREA OF UTAH, IDAHO OR WYOMING

          This is one of the more interesting bifaces in the Fenn cache because it has the best example of an over-shot flake removal. One flake removed nearly 4 inches (3 13/16 inches (9.7 cm) of an opposite edge. Another smaller over-shot flake can be seen near the point. The opposite side has an over-shot flake that measures 2 inches (5.1 cm) wide. This biface is made of opaque black Obsidian and it measures 7 5/8 inches (19.4 cm) long.

MAY 2012 CAST
CLOVIS CRESCENT

CLOVIS CRESCENT
FENN CACHE
UTAH
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-100

CLOVIS CRESCENT
FENN CACHE
UTAH

     This is the only crescent found in the Fenn cache and in fact it's the only known example ever found in a Clovis cache. It's described as having sharp edges at both ends but the middle area on both sides have been dulled by grinding. Although the known history surrounding the discovery of the Fenn cache is not what everyone would like. This crescent does seem to belong to the assemblage because it is made from the same Green River Formation chert as other artifacts in the group and it's also coated with red ochre. Crescent is the term that is most often used to describe these uniquely shaped early tool forms. But in fact, they were actually described and named Great Basin Transverse points by C.W. Clewlow Jr. in 1968. Most crescents are curved with a concave edge on one side and a convex edge on the other so the descriptive word "crescent" is most often used. Some archaeologists believe the Great Basin Stemmed Point Tradition, which is a possible source for this crescent, is either directly or indirectly connected to Clovis. Indirectly because these types of stemmed points are believed by some to predate Clovis. So this crescent may help to establish that the Great Basin Stemmed Point Tradition (also referred to as the Western Stemmed Point Tradition) was either contemporaneous with Clovis or possibly older than the Clovis culture. Another source describes crescents that have been found on the surface in California along with small Clovis-like points. This crescent measures 2 3/8 inches (6 cm) long.

APRIL 2012 CAST
FULTON TURKEY TAIL

FULTON TURKEY TAIL
LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY WOODLAND
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #A-15

FULTON TURKEY TAIL
LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY WOODLAND
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS

    This is an exceptionally well made example of a Fulton Turkey Tail. It's been published in six different publications where its been described as being quintessential (most perfect). It was found by Dean Burke in 1964 while surface collecting in a field near Lebanon, Illinois in St. Clair County. Two or three additional broken Fulton Turkey Tails are rumored to also have been found at the same location.
   This point is heavily patinated with a crusty surface on one side and there are two or three small specks of red ochre that is still preserved on the other side. This point is very thin for its size. It measures 1/8 inch (3 mm) across the notched base. The notches are deep and symmetrical with sharp points along the edges. The edges are also very finely retouched with tiny pressure flakes. This point is made of Cobden chert and it measures 4 3/4 inches (12.1 cm) long and 1 7/8 inches (4.8 cm) wide.
   Fulton Turkey Tail points represent one type in the Turkey Tail cluster. The other two types are the Harrison and Hebron points. Fulton Turkey Tail points were named by Lewis Binford after Fulton County, Illinois where many of them have been found. The shape of the notched base was named for the shape of a dressed turkey's tail. These points date to sometime during the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods between 3000 and 2500 years ago. They have been found in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and New York.

MARCH 2012 CAST
SUWANNEE POINT

SUWANNEE POINT
PALEO---EARLY ARCHAIC
GILCHRIST COUNTY, FLORIDA
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 29, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-99
SUWANNEE POINT
PALEO--EARLY ARCHAIC
GILCHRIST COUNTY, FLORIDA

    This Suwannee point was found many years ago in the Santa Fe River in Gilchrist County, Florida. It's made of a black colored chert that is not the best quality. But this is a good representative example of a Suwannee point. It measures 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) long.
    Suwannee points were named by Ripley P. Bullen after the Suwannee River and Suwannee County in Florida. The age of Suwannee points still seems to be in question. Some researchers have placed Suwannee points in the Early Archaic period while others believe they are older. For example, James Dunbar (Senior Archaeologist, Public Lands Archaeology, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research) writes that: "Most archaeologists, including this author, place Suwannee points as the post-Clovis, Middle Paleo-Indian type." He also says that Suwannee points have tool kits that are similar to Clovis tool kits. Some Suwannee points have multiple flutes and were made with over-shot percussion (edge-to-edge) flaking. Suwannee points are found in the coastal plain of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

"REFERENCE"

2006, Dunbar, James, Webb, David S., "Paleoindian Archaeology," First Floridians And Last Mastodons: The Page-Ladson Site In The Aucilla River, p.408-409.

FEBRUARY 2012 CAST
CLOVIS POINT

CLOVIS POINT
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS
COPYRIGHT JANUARY 31, 2012 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-98
CLOVIS POINT
GAULT SITE
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS

    This Clovis point was found several years ago by David Olmstead while digging on the Gault site in Williamson County, Texas. He found it near some engraved limestone water worn pebbles. This point is slightly "fishtailed" and it was fluted at least three times on one side. This point is made of a good quality gray colored chert. It measures 3 3/8 inches (8.6 cm) long and 1 3/16 inches (3 cm) wide.

    The Gault site is located in south central Texas in Williamson County and covers an area estimated to be a half mile by a little over a tenth of a mile wide (0.8 by 0.2 km). The site is classified as a stone tool manufacturing and habitation site. The Gault site has produced Clovis points, point preforms, tools made from blades, cores, burins and small engraved stones. Recent excavations (1998--2002) by archaeologists from the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin has recovered approximately 800,000 artifacts. One of the most important artifact types to have been recovered on the Gault site are the engraved stones. By 2001 at least 30 engraved stones had been found. Their direct association within the Clovis horizon at Gault is a significant discovery. Engraved stones from this early period in North America is almost unknown. In 2002 there was an important discovery of a 6 by 6 foot pavement of gravel that has been interpreted as evidence for one of the earliest man-made structures found in North America.

JANUARY 2012 CAST
GOSHEN POINT

GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA
COPYRIGHT DECEMBER 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-97

   The Mill iron site is located in Carter County, Montana in the southeastern part of the state. It's now believed that it represents the Goshen Cultural Complex as it was described at the Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming. There are now five accelerator dates on the site that average over 11,000 years before present. It remains to be proven if Goshen is a Clovis variant or if it should be placed somewhere between Clovis and Folsom.
   The Mill Iron site contains a single component and is buried under 1.5 to 1.8 meters of sterile deposits. One area is a camp site meat processing area and a short distance away is a bison bone bed that appears to be a deliberate piling of articulated and disarticulated bones and is not an actual kill area. Goshen projectile points demonstrate a wide range of variation, much of which results from reworking of broken specimens. (Frison, George C., 1991 pp 133-150)

DECEMBER 2011 CAST
FULTON TURKEY TAIL

FULTON TURKEY TAIL
LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY WOODLAND
CLINTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT NOVEMBER 30, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #A-14

FULTON TURKEY TAIL
LATE ARCHAIC TO EARLY WOODLAND
CLINTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS

    This Turkey Tail point was found several years ago in a cultivated field in Clinton County, Illinois. The majority of well made Fulton Turkey Tail points, like this example, have been found in caches. So it's likely that this point was part of a cache of other points. It's made of Indiana Hornstone and it measures 4 5/16 inches long.
   Fulton Turkey Tail points represent one type in the Turkey Tail cluster. The other two types are the Harrison and Hebron points. Fulton Turkey Tail points were named by Lewis Binford after Fulton County, Illinois where many of them have been found. The shape of the notched base was named for the shape of a dressed turkey's tail. These points date to sometime during the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods between 3000 and 2500 years ago. They have been found in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and New York.

SEPTEMBER 2011 CAST
McKINNIS CACHE BIFACE

BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT AUGUST 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-96
EARLY STAGE BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

   This early stage biface represents one of the 11 bifaces (see McKinnis cache) that were discovered during a land leveling operation in St. Louis County, Missouri. It's an early stage biface that illustrates "classic" Clovis flake removal scars. This biface is most impressive for its edge-to-edge or "outre passe" style of flaking. One side has a large edge-to-edge flake scar that removed 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) of the opposite edge. This is a lithic technology that was no longer traditionally used in post-Clovis cultures. The intended purpose for this early stage preform was probably to make a fluted point. This biface is made of Burlington chert and measures 4 5/16 inches (11 cm) long, 1 11/16 inches (4.3 cm) wide and 7/16 inch (1.1 cm) wide.
    It's generally accepted that fluting is an American invention and the technology must have developed from a pre-Clovis people who were not fluting. One possible explanation for a paradigm shift towards a fluted point technology might have been the incentive to use a different flintknapping technique. This fundamental change might have developed from a desire to utilize large high quality cherts and chalcedony that became available in the New World for the production of very large biface cores. If, for instance, a knapper changed his technique from just using a billet and punch to a rocker punch technique (see Dothager), the difference in flake removal control might begin to produce a completely different type of projectile point. The indirect rocker punch technique allows the knapper to remove, with less effort, very large flakes across the face of very large bifaces and to remove the flakes from any side, end and corner angle. This edge-to-edge style of flaking does not appear as a tradition in post-Clovis cultures and it's a good bet that the technique probably won't appear in a very early pre-Clovis culture.

     The McKinnis cache was discovered in 1996 on land that was being leveled for houses. The cache contained 11 bifaces and 12 core blades. The site is located on a hill top within 2 miles of the Missouri River in St. Louis County, Missouri. This cache was made with stone tool manufacturing technology that relates to the Clovis culture. The largest artifact in the cache is a basally thinned late stage Clovis point preform. A base of a Clovis point was also found near this cache.

ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
EARLY STAGE BIFACE
VIEW OF OVER SHOT FLAKE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

   This picture shows a close-up view of the over shot percussion flake scar on the biface pictured above. This is an excellent example of a Clovis technology break pattern that is often found on Clovis camp and manufacturing sites. Over shot flakes are referred to as either edge-to-edge or "outre passe" types of flake removals. This flintknapping technique represents an important diagnostic element of Clovis stone tool manufacturing technology. These unique and fairly rare types of flake removals help archaeologists identify Clovis sites. This biface is made of Burlington chert and it measures 4 5/16 inches (11 cm) long, 1 11/16 inches (4.3 cm) wide and 7/16 inch (1.1 cm) wide.

AUGUST 2011 CAST
HOLLAND POINT

HOLLAND POINT
EARLY ARCHAIC
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT JULY 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #A-13
HOLLAND POINT
EARLY ARCHAIC
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
PRIVATE COLLECTION

    This Holland point was found many years ago in St. Louis County, Missouri. There are several different styles of Holland points. This point has all the characteristics of a Dalton point except for the shoulders that might even be called corner-notched. In fact, this point seems to be a transitional form of Dalton-Hardin Barbed point. This point is made of white Burlington chert and it measures 4 3/4 inches long.
   Holland points were named by Gregory Perino after Warren Holland who found a cache of 14 points. He found them in 1966 in a plowed field in Henry County, Iowa. Holland points are found in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.

JULY 2011 CAST
FOLSOM BEAD

FOLSOM BEAD
SHIFTING SAND SITE
WINKLER COUNTY, TEXAS
EST. 11,500 years ago
COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-95
FOLSOM BEAD
SHIFTING SAND SITE
WINKLER COUNTY, TEXAS
EST. 11,500 years ago

     This tiny bead was discovered during the excavation of the Shifting Sands site in Winkler County, Texas. It was actually found stuck onto a chert flake, otherwise it probably wouldn't have been found at all. In fact, there may have been more of them. The material has not been identified but it's thought to be either ivory or bone. It measures about five or six dermal ridges wide.
   The Shifting Sands site is a bison kill and meat processing site located in western Texas. A large number of Folsom points and tools were discovered on the site.
   Note: If you drop this cast you may never ever find it again. I suggest you keep it in the small glass vial it comes in.

JUNE 2011 CAST
LATE STAGE CLOVIS PREFORM

CLOVIS PREFORM
ST. LOUIS BY-STATE AREA
MISSOURI - ILLINOIS
EST. 11,500 years ago
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-94
LATE STAGE
CLOVIS PREFORM
ST. LOUIS BY-STATE AREA
MISSOURI- ILLINOIS

     This Clovis preform was found several years ago by a road maintenance crew member somewhere in the St. Louis by-state area. A large wide flute was struck from one side but there is no indication that any further attempt was made to flute the other side or finish the point any further. The striking platform remnant on the basal edge has not been altered. This preform is made of white Burlington chert. It measures 2 13/16inches (7.1 cm) long and 1 3/8 inches (3.5 cm) wide.

MAY 2011 CAST
UNFLUTED FOLSOM OR "MIDLAND POINT

UNFLUTED FOLSOM OR
"MIDLAND" POINT
GOSHEN HOLE, WYOMING
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT APRIL 30, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-93

UNFLUTED FOLSOM OR "MIDLAND" POINT
GOSHEN HOLE, WYOMING
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLECTION

   Although broken, this unfluted Folsom or Midland point is an especially nice example. It has fine delicate ears and tiny micro flaking along the edges. Points, like this example, are referred to as either unfluted Folsom or Midland points. Some archaeologists believe they are either a variant of the Folsom point or just a Folsom point that was not fluted. Some of these points have a fluting platform on the center of the base that was never used. The reason for this might be that they were to thin to flute. Its also been suggested that the platform may have become a residual design feature from traditional Folsom point production. Notice that this point does have a slightly raised area in the center of the base that might relate to this description. Midland points were named in 1955 by Fred Wendorf, Alex D. Krieger and C. C. Albritton from examples found on the Scharbauer site near Midland, Texas.

   This point was found in eastern Wyoming at Goshen Hole on the high Plains where the land is described as a deep depression. This point is made of a semi-translucent dark brown material that is similar in appearance to Knife River flint. It measures 1 1/4 inches (3.2 cm) long.

APRIL 2011 CAST
BUCK CREEK POINT

BUCK CREEK POINT
LATE ARCHAIC
HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #A-12

BUCK CREEK POINT
LATE ARCHAIC
HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This Buck Creek point was found in Hardin County, Kentucky. It dates to the Late Archaic period approximately 3,000 years ago. Buck Creek points were named by Mark F. Seeman in 1975 after Buck Creek in Harrison County, Indiana where the type site is located. Large and very well made Buck Creek points, like this example, are usually associated with caches. They were probably made for some type of special event, such as for a burial. But most Buck Creek points were obviously tools that were used every day for knives or projectile points. They show heavy use from edge resharpening and various types of use wear damage.
     This Buck Creek point is very thin and skillfully flaked. The end of the base and the tip of the point still retain some of the outer crust or cortex on the stone it was made from. The end of the base is flat and unflaked which is typical for some Buck Creek points. This point is made of Indiana Hornstone and it measures 4 1/16 inches (10.3 cm) long, 1 7/8 inches (4.8 cm) wide and 7/32 (5.5 mm) thick.

MARCH 2011 CAST
HOYT SITE CLOVIS POINT

CLOVIS POINT
HOYT SITE
CENTRAL OREGON
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 28, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-92
CLOVIS POINT
HOYT SITE
GREAT BASIN REGION IN CENTRAL OREGON
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This is the first Clovis artifact identified to have ancient adhesive preserved within the hafting area. It was found several years ago by John Dyck on the Hoyt site in the Great Basin region of Central Oregon.  It's most important feature is the abrasion scratches located on both sides on the channel flake scars. Lab analysis by Kenneth B. Tankersley revealed the presence of an organic hafting adhesive (mastic) in the striations. Chemical and microscopic analysis identified the material as amber resin along with possible particulate wood charcoal inclusions. This is the first documentation of a Clovis point that has it's original hafting adhesive preserved on the channel flake scars.
    It's not uncommon to find Clovis points made of Obsidian that have striations on the basal channel flake scars. It's believed the striations were added to the hafting element on Obsidian because the newly fractured surface of Obsidian is very smooth. The additional surface roughness gives the hafting resin extra holding or gripping qualities. Obsidian was one of the softest materials used to make Clovis points. Obsidian has a Mohs scale hardness of between 6.0 and 6.5. Chert, Chalcedony, quartz crystal and orthoquartzie have a hardness of 7.0.
   The Hoyt site was a habitation and stone tool manufacturing site. Several Clovis artifacts and waste flakes were surface collected on this site over a period of several years. This Clovis point has impact damage to the point. It's made of black opaque Obsidian and measures 2 5/8 inches (6.7 cm) long and 1 3/8 (3.5 cm) wide.

FEBRUARY 2011 CAST
LAMB SITE CLOVIS POINT

EASTERN STYLE
CLOVIS POINT
LAMB SITE
GENESEE COUNTY, NEW YORK
10,500 to 11,000 years ago
CHRISTOPHER LAMB COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT JANUARY 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-91
EASTERN STYLE CLOVIS POINT
LAMB---76/83
GENESEE COUNTY, NEW YORK
CHRISTOPHER LAMB COLLECTION

JANUARY 2011 CAST
LAMB SITE CLOVIS POINT

EASTERN STYLE
CLOVIS POINT
LAMB SITE
GENESEE COUNTY, NEW YORK
10,500 to 11,000 years ago
CHRISTOPHER LAMB COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT DECEMBER 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-90
EASTERN STYLE CLOVIS POINT
LAMB---88/61/73
GENESEE COUNTY, NEW YORK
CHRISTOPHER LAMB COLLECTION
 

AUGUST 2010 CAST
MOUND 72 POINT

BONE FISHHOOK
CAHOKIA MOUNDS SITE
MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
PRIVATE COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT AUGUST 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST M-16

BONE FISHHOOK
CAHOKIA MOUNDS SITE
MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
PRIVATE COLLECTION

   This bone fishhook was found several years ago in a cultivated field on the Cahokia Mounds Historic site. It was found in a cache of six or seven other fishhooks. This fishhook appears to be made from deer bone and possibly the toe bone of a deer. An estimated date for this fishhook is somewhere between A.D. 900 to A.D. 1300.
   Fishhooks have been found on Mississippi, Woodland and Archaic sites. Bone fishhooks 8,000 to 9,000 years old were found in Nebraska (Wormington, 1957: 138).
   To the Mississippian people, fish were an extremely important source for concentrated protein. The bones from several different varieties of fish such as flathead catfish, alligator gar, drum buffalo, largemouth bass, walleye, channel catfish, bowfin, gar and suckers are found in abundance on many Mississippian village sites.
   Fishing techniques varied greatly just as they do today. The use of nets in pools left by receding floodwater would account for large and easy catches. The use of harpoons, hooks and gorges would produce much lower volumes of fish.
   The paucity of fishhooks on Mississippian sites suggests angling was of relatively little economic importance. Most fishhooks were probably used on trot lines rather than the single lines and poles we use today.

BONE FISHHOOKS & MISC. ARTIFACTS
CAHOKIA MOUNDS SITE

AUGUST 2010 CAST
MOUND 72 POINT

MOUND 72 POINT
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHT JULY 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST M-15
MOUND 72 POINT
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

   This point represents another one of the many different types of arrow points that were found during the excavation of mound 72. It was found in one of three caches that all together contained about 1200 projectile points. Only two points in Mound 72 were similar to this example. It was discovered within a large cache that contained several different styles of points. All the points in this cache were laying parallel to each other and generally facing one direction suggesting they were once hafted onto arrow shafts. This wide corner-notched point represents one of the artistic styles that are unique to Mound 72. The barbs are rounded and the blade edges are slightly recurved. This style may have been influenced by some of the Caddoan arrow point types from Arkansas and Oklahoma. This point is made of white Burlington chert and it measures 1 3/16 inches (3.1 cm) long.

OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS
MOUND 72
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
CACHE OF VARIOUS TYPES OF MOUND 72 POINTS

   Approximately seventeen different styles of arrow points were found in mound 72. They vary from simple unnotched triangular points to some that were both serrated and notched with recurved blade edges. They were also made from many different types of chert such as silicified sandstone, Burlington, Dover, Kaolin and Pitkin cherts.
   Mound 72 is a very complicated prehistoric mound structure. It was started as a single mound built over a large post pit. Sometime later two more mounds were added then finally all three mounds were capped into one large mound. After five digging seasons and two thirds of the mound had been excavated, 272 burials were uncovered. Many of these were mass graves, with the burials of victims of apparent sacrifice. Four males in one burial had their heads and hands removed. Another group were laid out in a row and tightly bound on cedar stretchers.
   Many of the burial offerings were made of exotic materials brought from great distances. Copper was brought from the Great Lakes area, mica from the Smoky Mountains and shell from the Gulf Coast. Mound 72 dates to approximately 950 A.D.

JULY 2010 CAST
RAMAH CHERT FLUTED POINT

FLUTED POINT
FRANKLIN COUNTY, VERMONT
COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-89
FLUTED POINT
FRANKLIN COUNTY, VERMONT

    This fluted point was surface collected many years ago by a farmer on a site that is believed to be somewhere in Franklin County, in southwestern Vermont. It was previously reported by Stephen Loring in an article called "Paleo-Indian Hunters And The Champlain Sea: A Presumed Association." This point is most important for the material it was made from. Stephen Loring (Smithsonian) originally identified the material as Cheshire quartzite which is a material that is found in north central Vermont. But in his more recent analysis of the point he was able to identified the material as Ramah chert from Labrador. The analysis was done with the use of lab equipment such as laser spectrograph or x-ray diffraction. This would mean that the source is considerably further away than first thought. In fact, this distance rivals many Early Paleo transports. A straight line from the find area to the known Ramah quarry along the Labrador coastline at Ramah Bay measures approximately 1,100 miles but a more probable circuitous route might be closer to 1,600 miles. It's believed that this point is fairly early and dates to at least 10,000 years ago or more.
   This point is fluted on both sides and was evidently discarded after it was last damaged from impact. The tip of one ear was broken off and there is some impact damage on the tip of the point. The ear was restored to return the point to it's original symmetry. This point measures 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) long.

   This picture shows three views of the original fluted point before the one ear was restored.

A SAMPLE OF RAMAH CHERT
RAMAH BAY LABRADOR

JUNE 2010 CAST
BROKEN PREFORM FROM KIMMSWICK

CLOVIS PREFORM
KIMMSWICK SITE
A PALEO-INDIAN MASTODON KILL SITE
JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
EST. 11,500 years ago
MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES COLLECTIONS
COPYRIGHT MAY 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-88
CLOVIS POINT (ORIGINAL)
KIMMSWICK MASTODON KILL SITE
MASTODON STATE PARK
JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES COLLECTIONS

     This broken base of a fluted preform was recovered from the lower Clovis horizon at Kimmswick. It was broken when a large end thinning flake was struck from the base and hinged downward. This broken preform represents one of the common types of break patterns found on Clovis sites. This preform was made from a piece of white Burlington (Crescent Quarry) chert and it measures 1 9/16 inches long.

KIMMSWICK MASTODON KILL SITE
EXCAVATION IN PROGRESS
MASTODON STATE PARK
JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
photo credit----Denver Museum of Natural History, Dr. Russ Graham

     This Clovis site, once referred to as just "Kimmswick", has had a long history of excavation. Beginning in 1839 Dr. Albert Koch unearthed skeletal remains which were later identified as Mammut americanum and later sold to the British Museum of Natural History in 1844 where they are still on display. In 1897 C.W. Beehler rediscovered the site with new excavations and later built a small on site museum in 1900, which housed hundreds of bones. Several excavations followed Beehler but the most extensive were those of Robert McCormick Adams in the 1940’s who left the most complete record of the site.

MAY 2010 CAST
ANASAZI SIDE-NOTCHED  POINT

SIDE-NOTCHED POINT
ANASAZI ERA
PUEBLO III, A.D. 1100-1300
WALLACE RUIN
MONTEZUMA CO., COLORADO
COPYRIGHT APRIL 30, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

ILLUSTRATION OF CAST
CAST #AN-3
 SIDE-NOTCHED POINT
ANASAZI ERA
PUEBLO III, A.D. 1100 - 1300
WALLACE RUIN
MONTEZUMA CO., COLORADO

   This Anasazi side-notched arrow point dates to the Pueblo III Period between A.D. 1100 and A.D. 1300. It was discovered during excavation of the Wallace Ruin site near Cortez, Colorado. This side-notched point was made from a beautiful piece of red Jasper and it measures 1 5/16 inches (3.3 cm) long.

ANASAZI ERA

by Bruce Bradley, PhD.

   On the Colorado Plateau of northeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado the Archaic was followed by a culture termed the Anasazi. This was a generalized village dwelling group which relied primarily on the cultivation of corn, beans and squash. Hunting did remain as part of the food gathering process throughout the Anasazi era. There is growing evidence that warfare may also have played a small role in Anasazi society. The Anasazi era has been separated into two major divisions: (1) the Basketmaker, and (2) the Pueblo. Each of these is further subdivided into social organizations. The Anasazi era is usually considered to fall between A.D. 1 and A.D. 1300. This time was followed by further development of a pueblo dwelling culture which is still existing today in New Mexico and Arizona.

APRIL 2010 CAST
CLOVIS POINT

CLOVIS POINT
EAST WENATCHEE CLOVIS SITE
DOUGLAS CO., WASHINGTON
OWNED BY THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
COPYRIGHT MARCH 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

ILLUSTRATION OF CAST
CAST #P-87
CLOVIS POINT (CAST)
(ARTIFACT NUMBER 45D0432 #325)
EAST WENATCHEE CLOVIS SITE
DOUGLAS CO., WASHINGTON

    This large Clovis point was discovered in April, 1988 during the excavation of the East Wenatchee Clovis site. The site is located in central Washington in Douglas County. It was found laying next to three other large fluted Clovis points at the edge of an ancient pit that contained more than 60 stone and bone Clovis culture artifacts. It's believed that this Clovis point has been resharpened one or more times. This point is made of a very pure, translucent clear to white agate that may have been quarried from outcrops among Columbia River basalts east of the archaeological site. It measures 5 5/8 inches (22 cm) long, 2 9/16 inches (6.6 cm) wide and 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) thick.

EAST WENATCHEE CLOVIS SITE
DOUGLAS CO., WASHINGTON

    One of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made in the study of Early Paleo bone and stone artifacts occurred near East Wenatchee, Washington in 1987. The site is located in an apple orchard near the Columbia River in central Washington. The initial find was made by workers who were digging a ditch for an irrigation pipe line.

MARCH 2010 CAST
SCOTTSBLUFF POINT

SCOTTSBLUFF POINT
HORNER SITE
PARKER COUNTY, WYOMING
COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 28, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ABOVE ORIGINAL BELOW
CAST #P-86

    The Horner site was discovered by Jimmy Allen on July 2, 1939 while he “walked down the (Shoshone) River to Sage Creek, hunting arrowheads.” The site was later recognized as the representative type site of the Cody Cultural Complex. The site was named after Pear Horner, the owner of the land. The Horner site is located in northwestern Wyoming in Park County 4 miles northeast of the town of Cody. The site is also situated on a 150 foot terrace near the confluence of Sage Creek and the Shoshone River.

JANUARY 2010 CAST
MOUND 72 POINT

MOUND 72 POINT
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHT DECEMBER 31, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST M-14
MOUND 72 POINT
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
MADISON & ST. CLAIR CO., ILLINOIS
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

   This arrow point was found during the excavation of mound 72 in one of three caches that all together contained about 1200 projectile points. There were only about thirteen points in Mound 72 that were similar to this example. It was discovered within a much larger cache that contained several different styles of points. All the points in this cache were laying parallel to each other and generally facing one direction suggesting they were once hafted onto arrow shafts. This point represents one of the artistic styles that are unique to Mound 72. It's corner notched like both the Agee and Agee A type points, it also has recurved blade edges that are similar to some Agee points and it has the straight base like Agee A points. The style of this Mound 72 point seems to be influenced by Caddoan arrow point styles from the Arkansas and Oklahoma areas located southwest of the Cahokia Mounds site. This point is made of white Burlington chert and it measures 1 38 inches (3.5 cm) long

OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS
MOUND 72
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE HISTORIC SITE
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
CACHE OF VARIOUS TYPES OF MOUND 72 POINTS

   Approximately seventeen different styles of arrow points were found in mound 72. They vary from simple unnotched triangular points to some that were both serrated and notched with recurved blade edges. They were also made from many different types of chert such as silicified sandstone, Burlington, Dover, Kaolin and Pitkin cherts.
   Mound 72 is a very complicated prehistoric mound structure. It was started as a single mound built over a large post pit. Sometime later two more mounds were added then finally all three mounds were capped into one large mound. After five digging seasons and two thirds of the mound had been excavated, 272 burials were uncovered. Many of these were mass graves, with the burials of victims of apparent sacrifice. Four males in one burial had their heads and hands removed. Another group were laid out in a row and tightly bound on cedar stretchers.
   Many of the burial offerings were made of exotic materials brought from great distances. Copper was brought from the Great Lakes area, mica from the Smoky Mountains and shell from the Gulf Coast. Mound 72 dates to approximately 950 A.D.

DECEMBER 2009 CAST
McKINNIS CACHE BIFACE

LATE STAGE BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT NOVEMBER 30, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
CAST #P-85

     In 1996 a cache of 11 bifaces and 12 core blades were discovered on land that was being leveled for houses. The site is located on a hill top and within 2 miles of the Missouri River in St. Louis County, Missouri. This cache was made with stone tool manufacturing technology that relates to the Clovis culture. The largest artifact in the cache is a basally thinned late stage Clovis point preform. A base of a Clovis point was also found near this cache.

ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
LATE STAGE CLOVIS BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

    This picture shows three views of the original McKinnis cache biface.

NOVEMBER 2009 CAST
McKINNIS CACHE BIFACE

BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT NOVEMBER 31, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
CAST #P-84
BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

   This early stage biface is one of 11 bifaces (see McKinnis cache) discovered during a land leveling operation in St. Louis County, Missouri. It's an early stage biface that illustrates "classic" Clovis flake removal technique. Large percussion flakes have been removed from several different directions. It has been demonstrated that a rocker-punch technique or indirect style of flaking may be the way Clovis people were making these small and the very large platter biface cores. Clovis biface reduction was achieved by removing large edge-to-edge percussion flakes from sides, corners and ends. This is a lithic technology that was no longer in use in post-Clovis cultures. The intended purpose for this early stage preform was probably to make a fluted point. This biface is made of Burlington chert and measures 4 3/4 inches (12 cm) long, 2 5/8 inches (6.7 cm) wide and 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) thick.
    It's generally accepted that fluting is an American invention and the technology must have developed from a pre-Clovis people who were not fluting. One possible explanation for a paradigm shift towards a fluted point technology might have been the incentive to use a different flintknapping technique. This fundamental change might have developed from a desire to utilize large high quality cherts and chalcedony that became available in the New World for the production of very large biface cores. If, for instance, a knapper changed his technique from just using a billet and punch to a rocker punch technique (see Dothager), the difference in flake removal control might begin to produce a completely different type of projectile point. The indirect rocker punch technique allows the knapper to remove, with less effort, very large flakes across the face of very large bifaces and to remove the flakes from any side, end and corner angle. This edge-to-edge style of flaking does not appear as a tradition in post-Clovis cultures and it's a good bet that the technique probably won't appear in a very early pre-Clovis culture.

     In 1996 a cache of 11 bifaces and 12 core blades were discovered on land that was being leveled for houses. The site is located on a hill top and within 2 miles of the Missouri River in St. Louis County, Missouri. This cache was made with stone tool manufacturing technology that relates to the Clovis culture. The largest artifact in the cache is a basally thinned late stage Clovis point preform. A base of a Clovis point was also found near this cache.

ORIGINAL ARTIFACT ILLUSTRATED
BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

    This picture shows three views of the original McKinnis cache biface.

OCTOBER 2009 CAST
MESA SITE POINT

MESA SITE POINT
(NUMBER UA-79-160-70)
NORTHERN ALASKA
ARCTIC CIRCLE
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
COPYRIGHT SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-83

   The Mesa site was discovered in 1978 by Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Michael Kunz in the northern foothills of Alaska's Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle. The site was tested in 1979 and 1980. Full scale summer excavations began in 1991 and continued through 1999. Several years of excavations eventually produced 51 carbon dates that range from 11,700 to 9,700 years before present. The best estimated core record of time for the Paleo feature of this site seems to be somewhere between 10,400 and 9,800 years ago. The Mesa site is recognized as the first well-documented Paleo-Indian site to be found in the North American Arctic.
   The Mesa site is located on a high plateau approximately 200 feet above the rolling Arctic tundra. It was periodically used as a hunting lookout that provided a 360 degree view of the treeless plains below for more than 60 square miles.  These early people were hunting big game animals such as caribou, musk oxen, extinct bison and mammoths. This lookout provided them with a convenient way to locate animals in the area.
   The Mesa site produced a classic Early-Paleo stone tool assemblage. Leading North American Paleo-Indian archaeologists Dr. George Frison, Dr. C. Vance Haynes and Dr. Dennis Stanford have visited the site and studied the artifacts and have concluded that the Mesa tool assemblage is typically Paleo-Indian.  Also, other archaeologists have studied the tool assemblage and have reach the same conclusion. This site produced gravers of a type that have been found in Clovis tool assemblages from coast to coast in the United States. End-scrapers with and without spurs were also found. End-scrapers or so-called thumbnail scrapers are found in tool kits on the majority of very early Stone Age sites in North America.
   The more than one hundred projectile points that were found on the Mesa site are very similar to Agate Basin points, although they seem to average slightly smaller. This may be a factor directly caused by chert availability in the area. These projectile points were most probably hafted on spears and thrown with an atlatl or throwing stick. They may have even been hafted onto short fore shafts that could have quickly and easily replaced a broken point on a larger spear shaft. The "Mesa points" are lanceolate in outline and have heavily ground or smoothed basal edges where they were hafted to a spear.  These points were resharpened and repointed uniformly by pressure flaking without beveling like some later types of spear points.
   Only two later period features were found on the Mesa site. One is in locality A where a late northern Archaic micro-blade feature was found that dates to approximately 3500 years ago. Most of the artifacts found there were in the form of 120 micro-blades. Another item, a 45-70 cartridge, was also found on the Mesa site. This fairly recent artifact probably indicates that sometime between 1885-1910, an Eskimo, had climbed to the site and fired at an animal on the Arctic tundra below.
   The Mesa site was an important discovery. It has contributed new theories and insights into how these early people lived and were colonizing the New World.

SEPTEMBER 2009 CAST
GOSHEN POINT

GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA
COPYRIGHT AUGUST 31, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-82
GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA

   This Goshen point is described by Frison and Bradley as a point that, "conforms in shape to the general description of Goshen points." The hafting area edges on this point (proximal edges) are straight but expand slightly towards the point (distal portion). Pressure flaking on both sides was selective with a wide range of flake scar widths. Pressure flakes on the base are not large enough to be considered basal thinning. The material is not identified. This point measures 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm) long.
     Thirty-one projectile points were found on the Mill Iron site. Eleven were found in the camp area, twelve in the bone bed meat processing area and seven points were found on the surface. These points exhibit a fairly wide range of style and flaking technique. Some of the bases are almost straight, like this example, while others vary from slightly to fairly deeply concave. Also, some of the basal edges are concave but they are straight at the base of the concavity, similar to some Folsom points. The sides are straight to slightly convex and one example appears to be slightly fish-tailed.

   The Mill iron site is located in Carter County, Montana in the southeastern part of the state. It's now believed that it represents the Goshen Cultural Complex as it was described at the Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming. There are now five accelerator dates on the site that average over 11,000 years before present. It remains to be proven if Goshen is a Clovis variant or if it should be placed somewhere between Clovis and Folsom.
   The Mill Iron site contains a single component and is buried under 1.5 to 1.8 meters of sterile deposits. One area is a camp site meat processing area and a short distance away is a bison bone bed that appears to be a deliberate piling of articulated and disarticulated bones and is not an actual kill area. Goshen projectile points demonstrate a wide range of variation, much of which results from reworking of broken specimens. (Frison, George C., 1991 pp 133-150)

CAST ILLUSTRATED
GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA

    Picture of opposite side of point illustrated above, showing random flaking.

AUGUST 2009 CAST
GOSHEN POINT

GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA
COPYRIGHT JULY 31, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-81
GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA

    This Goshen point was discovered in the bison bone bed during the excavation of the Mill Iron site. It's atypical in form because it has a base that is almost straight, It has only the slightest indentation. This point is described by Frison & Bradley as being, "in some ways, an extraordinary point." They believe that it was probably made from the mid-section of what would have been the largest point in the assemblage. They also describe it as being flat lens shaped in cross-section. Pressure flaking scars are shallow and difficult to distinguish from one another on one side and slightly more distinct on the other. The edges in the hafting area, on the base and sides, are steeply retouched with pressure flaking and heavily ground. This has the effect of making it almost look stemmed. The material was not identified. It measures 2 3/16 inches (5.5 cm) long.
     Thirty-one projectile points were found on the Mill Iron site. Eleven were found in the camp area, twelve in the bone bed meat processing area and seven points were found on the surface. These points exhibit a fairly wide range of style and flaking technique. Some of the bases are almost straight, like this example, while others vary from slightly to fairly deeply concave. Also, some of the basal edges are concave but they are straight at the base of the concavity, similar to some Folsom points. The sides are straight to slightly convex and one example appears to be slightly fish-tailed.

   The Mill iron site is located in Carter County, Montana in the southeastern part of the state. It's now believed that it represents the Goshen Cultural Complex as it was described at the Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming. There are now five accelerator dates on the site that average over 11,000 years before present. It remains to be proven if Goshen is a Clovis variant or if it should be placed somewhere between Clovis and Folsom.
   The Mill Iron site contains a single component and is buried under 1.5 to 1.8 meters of sterile deposits. One area is a camp site meat processing area and a short distance away is a bison bone bed that appears to be a deliberate piling of articulated and disarticulated bones and is not an actual kill area. Goshen projectile points demonstrate a wide range of variation, much of which results from reworking of broken specimens. (Frison, George C., 1991 pp 133-150)

CAST ILLUSTRATED
GOSHEN POINT
MILL IRON SITE
CARTER COUNTY, MONTANA

    Picture of opposite side of point illustrated above, showing random flaking.

JULY 2009 CAST
CLOVIS POINT, COLBY SITE, WYOMING

CLOVIS POINT
COLBY MAMMOTH KILL SITE
NORTH CENTRAL WYOMING
PRIVATE  COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT JUNE 30, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST #P-80
CLOVIS POINT
COLBY SITE
NORTH CENTRAL WYOMING

   This Clovis point was found in 1962 by heavy equipment operator Donald Colby. He found the point during reservoir construction. The Colby site was later named after Donald Colby, the discoverer of the site. This is the largest complete example. A total of four Clovis points were found on the site. All of the Colby Clovis points have rounded bases.
   Frison describes this Clovis point: "The specimen found by Colby is noticeably different in outline from the classic Clovis type, and part of this may be the result of reworking. The distal end was reworked for approximately 11 mm probably to correct for a previously broken tip. The blade edges expand continually to within about 8 mm from the base, where they are rounded sharply. A notch 9 mm deep and 15 mm wide is flaked into the base. The blade edges are ground for just over one-third of their length, and this joins with the grinding of the deep basal notch. There is a strong possibility that the base was reworked also and that the original specimen was longer and that it probably broke distal to the hafting.
   This Clovis point is made of a banded chert that probably came frm the Madison Formation. It measures 3 5/8 inches (9.2 cm) long.

THE COLBY SITE
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   The Colby site is located on private property in north central Wyoming in the Bighorn Basin. This important site was named after Donald Colby who discovered the first Clovis spear point there in 1962. Mr. Colby found it while using heavy earth moving equipment during the construction of a reservoir. The Colby site was first recognized as an important archaeological site when the first scientific excavations began to take place there in 1973. Most of the site was eventually excavated during five separate digging seasons between the years 1973 through 1978.
    Parts of at least seven mammoths were found in an ancient arroyo (dry gully or stream) in two areas designated as bone pile number 1 and bone pile number 2. There was also a third much smaller bone concentration that consisted of a variety of different mammoth bones. It's believed that due to the difference in the preservation of the bones that the mammoths were probably not all killed at the same time. The two larger bone piles were found to be in direct association with a small collection of Clovis related stone and bone artifacts. New dating estimates for Clovis could place this site as early as 14,000 years ago. Other types of animal bones found on the Colby site include horse, camel, bison, pronghorn, jackrabbit and possibly musk-ox.

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